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Chen: "I have to apologize to my team"

BOSTON - Orioles pitcher Wei-Yin Chen turned in his worst start as a major leaguer, allowing a career-high eight runs in a career-low 3 2/3 innings in a 13-2 loss to the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

"I have to apologize to my team. I didn't want to hurt my team," Chen said through his interpreter, Tim Lin, while standing outside the visiting clubhouse.

"I still have to keep my same approach and do my work, same preparation every day. I just need to work with Billy (Castro) in my bullpen session. Nothing different, I just need to come back strong."

So, what went wrong for Chen?

"They hit the ball really good and swung the bat really well," he said.

More specifically, what did he do wrong?

"It wasn't good enough," he said. "The pitch selection, the execution of my breaking ball wasn't there. So, it was definitely my fault.

"It's my personal fault. From the beginning of the game, I tried to make adjustments. Today just wasn't my day. It's really hard for me and a really tough loss.

"This is probably the worst game in my career, but tomorrow is another day, so I'll go back and sleep. And tomorrow is another day I'll work on my stuff. Don't worry about that.

"I'm definitely disappointed tonight in my performance, especially because these are really important games to me. But I have to say, every game to us is really important. We have to focus on tomorrow and just keep going."

Chen has allowed six home runs in his last three starts, giving him 12 in 17 outings.

"I don't want to comment on that," he said. "Just a lot of hitters swinging the bat really well."

Chen also didn't want to elaborate on an incident in the fourth when he hit Shane Victorino with a pitch and the Red Sox's right fielder flipped the ball to him. Chen let it bounce on the ground.

That was it. Nothing more came of it.

"I don't want to comment on that," Chen said. "I know he's a really good athlete, but I'm a really good pitcher, too. I didn't want to hit him. I didn't mean to hit him. But you can tell, I didn't have my command today. That ball just definitely was an accident."

Catcher Matt Wieters said Chen struggled to throw his off-speed stuff for strikes.

"And it's a good lineup over there," Wieters said. "If the only pitch you can really command is your fastball, they're going to be able to jump on it a little bit. But he had good break on his stuff. He just couldn't quite get it for strikes to make them honor it.

"Wei-Yin has been very consistent for us and very good for us. That's why it's not hard to say it's just a blip on the radar. He works harder than anybody and everybody is going to have them at some point. You're going to have bad days, and the biggest thing is learn from it and move on."

The entire team needs to move on after a 13-2 thrashing.

"We got our butts kicked tonight and there's no doubt about that, but it's over now," Wieters said. "We're (looking) forward and we're ready to go tomorrow. It's just a loss now. Whether we lost 2-1 or like we did tonight, it's one loss and we'll move forward."

"The loss is over," said center fielder Adam Jones. "It was 13-2. It wasn't like it was 2-1. It wasn't a fun, pleasant game, but it's over with. Let's come back tomorrow with a better game plan.

"This team is playing good. We've got to bring it. We've got to be better. Hey, this game happened. It's over with. Now, it's just move on and be aggressive against (John) Lackey.

"Losing 2-1 hurts a little more than losing 13-2, so stop crying. Come back tomorrow and play the game of baseball."